By Dwight Cunningham
It’s tough being an American. It's hard to know your worth when you're Black, or Latino, Native American or Asian, Muslim, gay or whatever. Seems today’s patriotic ideal American isn’t any of “those people,” as the powerful spend considerable time and nefarious energy to exert dominance by any means possible.
It’s done through gerrymandering, through restricting hard-won voting rights — but most of all through intimidation. Witness armed Americans challenging the Michigan Legislature, and then going criminally further with a faux militia plot to kidnap the governor.
Of course, nothing can approach feeling less than American as we watched an armed mob storm the United States Capitol in the immediate aftermath of a presidential election. They were led by folks with such lovely monikers as Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. Even the wife of a Black Supreme Court Justice took part in that beauty.
Remember, some called it an insurrection. Others called it a riot. Many of our congresspeople euphemistically and unapologetically called it a whimsical stroll through the Capitol — when mere days earlier they were hiding, fearing for their lives as the Confederate flag waltzed through the National Statuary Hall.
It's tough being an American when you see spiraling homelessness in the world’s most prosperous country. It’s tough being an American when there’s 50 percent more carbon dioxide in the air than before the Industrial Revolution. It’s tough being an American taxpayer when one’s disappearing wages go to Uncle Sam in outsized amounts compared to the wealthy. It’s tough being an American woman who has no say-so over her fertility or pregnancy in an increasing number of states.
It’s tough being an American when schoolchildren engage in duck-and-cower exercises in case of an active-shooting scenario. It’s tough to be an American parent when teachers and librarians fear for their livelihoods if they promote equality or diversity. American parents also must contend with the sad trend of declining test scores in math and reading among 4th- and 8th-grade kids.
American patriotism has faced a steep decline among young adults over the last decade, and now sits at a record low, according to a recent Gallup survey. Bigger picture: Younger adults are significantly less proud to be an American than older generations; only 4 in 10 U.S. adults say they are “extremely proud” to be an American, also near a record low.
National service is a relic, a thing of a more harmonious past. And for today’s populace to not harbor patriotic mindsets is arguably a clear and present danger to our democracy’s best interests.
It’s tough being an American, considering that only about 1 percent of adult Americans are in uniform, with most young people saying they don't want to engage in some dreamed-up war, or they just don't want to die for their country.
The all-volunteer military is in a crisis, with 2024 on track to see a record low in military recruitment, our government says. Consequently, we will have the smallest active duty force since 1940.
Defense Department officials are at wit’s end after last year’s 41,000 shortfall, which hit the Army, Navy and Air Force. (Only the Marine Corps and Space Force met recruiting goals.)
Things are so bad that the Air Force last October raised its maximum age limit for recruits to 42. The new age limit is the latest in a series of military leaders’ concessions to recruit more GIs. Qualified applicants can retest if they test positive for marijuana use. Relaxation of fat composition rules and allowing small hand and neck tattoos are also today’s norm.
Moreover, the military has to contend with drawing recruits from a stressed-out society.
“The COVID-19 pandemic, global conflicts, racism and racial injustice, inflation and climate-related disasters are all weighing on the collective consciousness of Americans,” according to the latest “Stress in America” survey conducted by the Harris Poll for the American Psychological Association.
What once was pride in our nation has been hijacked, with contemporary concepts of patriotism now worn with skewed stripes of red, white and blue. Red states, Blue states — but White Supremacy is trying to reign throughout.
How can we be considered great as the nation struggled through a pandemic where 1 million Americans died, in large measure because their government promoted lies and conspiracies led by a president who trumpeted drinking bleach and shining light inward instead of wearing masks?
It’s tough being an American when that same former president and presidential candidate today sits in a criminal courtroom, with a bevy of federal and state trials on his horizon — including storing top-secret war plans in his bathroom.
Why on earth would anyone want those? Except Iran, where we are in a proxy war with Israel leading the genocidal charge. And with our nation’s blessing, more than 33,000 Palestinians have died — so far. Most of them were women, children and the elderly as Israel uses American-made munitions to kill, maim and otherwise obliterate the Gaza homeland and Palestinian culture.
It is tough being an American living with such unpatriotic and undemocratic actions — and fearing for our collective future. It is just so un-American.
Dwight Cunningham is a retired journalist, an Air Force veteran, emergency manager and former college instructor. He resides in South Carolina.
